The Aquanaut

By Ethan Sarem

Who is the Aquanaut?

An interstellar explorer, his ship crashed on a distant world.
Disintegrated on impact with world’s ocean, sank to the seabed… Never to fly again!

The Aquanaut washes ashore on an island,
unconscious until ocean water revives him.
He is alone, no threats or companions…
He would be at peace, if not for nightmares.

Nightmares remind him of crashed ship, what happened to it?

Crashed ship sank to the seabed, never to fly again… And the Aquanaut searches for it!
He hasn’t seen other humans in a long time, and now it may be for the rest of his life…

The Aquanaut’s search takes him beneath the waves, where surface cares melt…
Will he find crashed ship? And when he finds it, can he return home?

There’s more to discover than ship, more to learn about himself… Free for the first time in years.

Maybe crash was meant to be, maybe this is fate…
Do you want to find out?

Wouldn’t it be nice to forgo your worries, forgo your problems? Become carefree?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781387473038

Book preview

The Aquanaut

The Aquanaut

The Aquanaut ©2017 by Ethan Sarem.

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-387-47303-8

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from Ethan Sarem, except in the case of brief quotations for reviews and articles.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and places are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, or things is entirely coincidental.

1. The Alone

They say no man is an island, makes me wonder… What must you do to become one?

Wouldn’t it be nice to forgo your worries,

forgo your problems? Perhaps

Wouldn’t it be nice to release your sense of self, become one with the world? Perhaps

Wouldn’t it be nice if said world

wasn’t governed by tweets?

Even 11 minutes works for me

Perhaps I repeat myself,

can’t refrain from echoing refrain…

Part of me, who I am

Of these three statements,

number three suits superbly…

World shouldn’t be governed by tweets

On an island, our story starts…

Somewhere beyond human recall,

somewhere seldom visited

Island featureless, one of myriads

scattered around endless ocean…

Most of them miniscule

Cannot contain a civilization,

let alone one person…

They cannot sustain themselves

Some islands possess palm trees,

none bear fruit…

How does one subsist on nothing?

Islands miniscule compared to ocean,

massive compared to their dwellers…

Nonexistent

So islands could contain a person,

but not a civilization… Good to know, good friend

No one wants to be here,

not even in bouts of insanity…

But someone is here, lying in sand tomb

…Several questions seep from sleep,

too many to ask simultaneously…

Chorus in chaos

Who are they, why are they lying in sand tomb? Are they dead?

They’re unconscious, not dead

…A detail like that doesn’t fit in utopian fiction, unless dystopia figured in…

But it doesn’t

Unconscious figure appears human,

difficult to discern specific features…

Impossible, mayhap

Makes me wonder what happened to them,

how could they survive?

I suppose we’ll never know

We may not know immediately,

we will know eventually…

Truth trumps fiction any day

I’ve heard there are people

who’ll do anything to suppress truth,

bet karma haunts them

Figure lacks visible injury,

doesn’t appear to be a trauma victim…

Triage a trifle, needn’t take

Appears battered inside,

something isn’t entombed try as one might…

What could that be?

Unconscious doesn’t reply,

hears nothing but waves…

Sees nothing but sand, isn’t that sad?

Again no reply,

figure cadaveric as seconds abscond…

Pond pounds at mound, technically tide

Figure lies in tomb, within range of tide…

Frigid liquid better revive,

I rely on resurrection

I cannot reference inanimate figure forever,

you see… Should we move on?

About to close the book,

when a wave advances into tomb…

Touches scars on cadaver’s neck

Slowly cadaver revives, thanks to frigid liquid… This world’s answer to smelling salts

Slowly do eyes open,